Author Archives: Joe Nolan
Lou’s Clues
I dedicated one recent Halloween post to the all too real ghost of Lou Reed who died three years ago this past October, 27. I’ve had a productive week this week: I handed in a final proposal for a community arts grant; I turned in a feature story about the challenges of being homeless in [...]
Ghost Dog Day
In conjunction with England’s Black Star celebration of black actors in film and televison, BFI published an article in praise of Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai on Monday, and I couldn’t agree with its assessment of the genre-bending hip-hop-hit-man flick. This piece focus’s on Forrest Whitaker’s performance as the title character. [...]
Open To Doors
After all of these Halloween posts I’ve been posting I was at a loss at what to write about on Halloween night. I looked at a bunch of places that inspire these posts before remembering this documentary about The Doors. I’m not sure if I’m part of a counterculture or if I share genes with [...]
Of Hate and Horror
One last monstrous post before the the witches take over the night sky, the jack-o-lanterns cackle and the veil is pierced with mischief, mayhem, lunacy and eros. This year we celebrate the 90th birthday of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story “The Call of Cthulhu” which appeared in Weird Tales in 1926. Here’s what a couple of [...]
Love Gun
I was checking out our Flipboard project for a scary Halloween post, and what’s more scary than an out of control romantic relationship? I don’t mean out of control in a way that challenges your maybe-irrational ideas about control, and might make you grow as a person if you treated the situation as a challenge [...]
Hellraiser
Getting down to the last few days before we celebrate Halloween, here’s a documentary about the modern witch who brought us the most well-known system of modern witchcraft: Gardnerian Wicca, which was founded in the 1950′s by Gerald Gardner. Here’s Garner’s story from the Wiki… Born into an upper-middle-class family in Blundellsands, Lancashire, Gardner spent [...]
Jack’s Tracts
Jack Chick hated Catholics, Jews, Freemasons, Dungeons & Dragons, Mormons, Harry Potter, and the Devil. He also published a series of comic book bible tract zines for just over a decade during the 1970′s and 1980′s that helped to kickstart the Satanic Panic. The comics also won Chick an ironic status among comic fans and [...]
Adieu, Anastasia
Let’s start the week with a nod to the season of the supernatural. Sometimes real life is way more whacked-out than any horror tale, and who felt more horror in the 20th Century than the Russians who lived through their revolution? The rise of Trump has put a spotlight on what is feeling like the [...]
New Normal
This past Sunday night was the debut of Adam Curtis’ new BBC documentary, HyperNormalisation. Curtis is a flat-out genius and any new film from the master is an occasion for celebration… We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the [...]
Coney Island Birthday
Along with all my Halloween horror posts, I’m going to dedicate some of this month’s content to Lou Reed who left this plane three years ago on October 27, 2013. This year we’re also celebrating the 40th anniversary of Lou’s sixth solo album, Coney Island Baby, released in February, 1976. Here are some words from [...]
